Saffrons match was a huge success - Andrew

Sussex Cricket chief executive Rob Andrew felt the return to Eastbourne was a huge success earlier this year and says outground fixtures are important for the club going forward.

Sussex played their first match at the Saffrons for 17 years in May, with a crowd of 4,000 in attendance, and the county also still has the annual Arundel Festival and are in dialogue with Horsham about returning to play at Cricketfield Road in the future.

Andrew hopes to return to Eastbourne again next year and speaking this week about Sussex playing home fixtures away from their Hove base said: “They’re very important and they’re a real part of the history of the club.

“They’re very important to spread the word and the game. Clearly this (Hove) is the home of Sussex Cricket but we are a county side.

“Eastbourne was a huge success last year, absolutely amazing and we would hope to repeat that next year. We’re looking at getting the fixtures in the next couple of weeks and then we’ll start to piece that together.

“Arundel is part of the fabric of Sussex County Cricket Club and obviously there’s been cricket at Horsham and we’ve now come away from it.

“But we are having discussions with Horsham about the possibility of going back there.

“It has to work for them and for us. We will continue to try to find ways of making it work.”

Andrew says there is no date in mind for when cricket could return to Horsham at the moment, “It’s always difficult to put time frames on things because then people hold you to them.

“All I can say is there’s a willingness to talk from Horsham Cricket Club’s side and our side to see what a solution might be.

“It might be something like the Eastbourne situation with a one-day game.

“These things have to work for everybody but we’re very open to it and it’s a very important part of our remit, which is not just the men’s first team, our remit is across the whole county and looking after all cricket in Sussex.”